(This is the many who have been accused of sexual harassment in the unfolding #MeToo movement who have responded to the allegations, or who have had action taken against them.)
The #MeToo movement has finally found its feet in India. When actor Tanushree Dutta leveled charges against Nana Patekar in 2008 for sexually assaulting her, no one took notice. However, after the global outrage against the people in power, women in India too started speaking out again.
Dutta, after coming back to India after several years, called Patekar out, again. This time, however, the country had changed, everyone sat up and heard her out. Soon, the movement spread to other parts of the country.
On 4 October, 2018 a bunch of women called out comic and YouTuber Utsav Chakraborty for sexual misconduct and sending sexually explicit unsolicited messages to women, especially minors.
Saw this on my timeline, interesting for you to comment on how Indian men harass women. Irony is still alive and thriving. Did they send unsolicited dick picks or that’s safely only your territory? Or like cry after saying you’ll ruin their career if you tell others? Or will they also blame that on the girls? The harassment they got that is. Hey Utsav. How many girls have you harassed you vile man. These messages are for a young girl I know.A Twitter user who accused Chakraborty of sexual harassment.
After the first tweet, several women started calling the comic out for his sexual misconduct. He has been accused of sending unsolicited pictures of his genitalia to women and asking women to send nudes. Several male comics too corroborated the women’s versions.
He has been ousted from the comic fraternity, his upcoming shows have been cancelled. No formal complaint has been lodged against him yet.
#MeToo in Journalism
On the heels of #MeToo in Bollywood and the Indian comedy circuit, journalists started calling out men who have been sexually abusive and harassers to them. Some of the biggest names in the journalism circles have been called out.
Senior Journalist MJ Akbar has been accused of propositioning women journalists. Mayank Jain, an ex-employee at BloombergQuint and Scroll.in, has been accused of sexually harassing atleast two women. Anurag Verma, ex-Huffpost India journalist, has been accused of sexual misdemeanor as well. The names are surfacing every second. We are in the process of checking the veracity of each and every claims and simultaneously speaking with the survivors.
Women students have also started calling out professors who have been sexually inappropriate. The #MeToo in academia was actually started with Raya Sarkar’s list. The list, however, met with a lot of resistance and it unfortunately lead to unnecessary victim shaming and a counter campaign to silence the whistle blower.
Here’s to all the women who have bravely come forward to report cases of sexual harassment. You women are stronger than you think you are.
(With inputs from Arpita Raj)
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